Monday, June 20, 2011

Double chocolate chip cookies




I reached cookie nirvana on Friday.

These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. This is what I expect from the perfect cookie, what I have never been able to replicate in my kitchen. This cookie is chewy, chunky and fudgy. My other chocolate chip cookies were pretty good if I can say so myself but these are perfect. In taste, texture, size. And they didn't turn flat a few minutes out of the oven. Don't ask me why or how. I've tried all the tricks. Freezing. Resting the dough for 24, 36, 48 hours. I've tried adding more or less butter. I've used different kinds of sugar. I've tried underbaking and they turned out... well, underbaked. While baking these I even added the egg later than I should have. It mattered not, still perfection.



The recipe did not seem so very different from others I had used. There were the usual promises of the best cookie ever, but I wasn't convinced. I had seen beautiful photos before and my end product never turned out looking quite the same. So I can't tell you why they turned out so good. What I can say is that just writing about the lack of inspiration I was feeling on Friday, putting it out there, got my creative juices flowing again. I literally ran home from work and baked these beauties in the two hours I had to pack, pick up the kids and leave for the week end. I barely had ten seconds to take a couple of pictures. They do not do these cookies justice. Make them yourself, you'll see.




These are brownies and chocolate chip cookies all in one. They made the perfect gift for the perfect week end. Nature leaves me speechless, by the way.

Please click to zoom...it is worth it, I promise


You forget that a few hours from a city, even in an overcrowded country like Italy, there is such beauty.









Thank you for your comments, for sharing your similar experiences and for your support on my last post. I know that for every comment left there are at least ten more of you out there that feel the same way. And last but not least, check out my blogroll. I finally updated it a few weeks ago with some of my favorite blogs.



Recipe adapted from A Full Measure of Happiness.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate (or chips)
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix together the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, cocoa powder and egg until well combined. Add the flour, baking soda, chocolate chunks and pecans and mix well. The resulting cookie dough will be quite firm. Preheat oven to 350°C. Roll out into balls, flatten and place on a baking tray covered with baking paper. This recipe should yield 14 large cookies. Leave enough space between the cookies to let them grow. Bake for 10 minutes, pull out and let cool on tray. This is important for them to continue baking.

19 comments:

  1. Those came out gorgeous! I don't know what it is about these cookies, either, but they are just so darn good! And those pictures--the mountains! oh man I wish I was there...

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  2. Your cookies just made me drool. Literally. And that's pretty mean considering the fact that I'm at work and nowhere near a cookie (or equipment to make me a cookie)!

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  3. Argh! These cookies are very "cioccolatosi" (I can't think about an English word to describe them better)... my mouth is watering :)

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  4. Those look good! And the mountains look even better! They make me feel so homesick! I want the alps!!

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  5. Italy is such a gorgeous country. You have some amazing shots there! Those cookies do indeed look perfect. I managed to create a perfectly cooked cookie the other day as well and honestly have no idea how it happened.

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  6. Ohhh I am quoting Pola here... I want the Alps toooooo! And some of those amazing looking chocolatey cookies too please! Yummylicious (that's my little one's favorite word...)!

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  7. Lauren - thanks for inspiring me, I never would have known about these without you. And so glad I discovered your blog.
    Valerie - Boy, I understand that feeling. I am constantly drooling at my desk ;o)
    Giulietta - the word you are looking for is probably fudgy or chocolatey...but cioccolatosi speaks right to me.
    Pola - Nothing more beautiful than the alps, I agree.
    Julie - I wonder how that happens? I hope it works again the next time round, otherwise I will be very disappointed.
    Manu - Next time you are here, I will bake them (because you will be on vacation, not because you can't make them yummylicious yourself!) and then you take a picnic basket and drive up with your family for a trek in the alps!

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  8. I love the gooey chocolatey centre! And nature leaves me breathless too. There's nothing man made that can rival nature really. Well except these cookies right? ;)

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  9. Cookies look amazing! I baked the chocolate peanut butter chip ones again today and they flopped and flattened all over the place. Very sad!
    Also, I changed my comment format and managed to get the reply to comment feature. Let me know what you think, and I'll tell you how to get it if you like it. Very easy, and seems to be working for now.... even managed to import all my old comments.

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  10. cookies look superb; what with the scenery around, I can't think of a better definition for happiness.

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  11. Lorraine - I agree, totally.
    Moomser - thanks for the tip on your new feature. I will have to wait and see what happens to these cookies the next time I bake them. Because there will be a second time.
    ToB - Yes, it was pure happiness.

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  12. I don't know which I'm more distracted by- the view of the mountains, or the cookies. Both are divine.

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  13. Ooh this is the kind of texture I like in a cookie! I hate crispy cookies. I love fudgy and chewy ones. These look devilicious!

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  14. i want to eat your chocolate cookies^^
    i wikk make it by myself this sunday
    double chocolate chip cookie recipe

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  15. Tori - as good as the cookies were, nothing beats the mountains
    Sophia - I seem to remember you are not a cookie person, especially not a choc chip cookie person...
    Cat person - let me know!

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  16. Interesting because it looks delicious and easy to make at home.

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  17. hmmmmmm cookies with double chocolate chip that is what I call nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom , those are my favorites, I have no more words but nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom

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